The present invention relates generally to storage systems and, more particularly, to migration of data and backup configuration between the virtualized system environment and the non-virtualized system environment.
Recently the server virtualization technology is increasingly introduced into IT systems in business enterprises. The server virtualization technology virtualizes a server computer by virtually splitting a set of computing resources (i.e., CPU, memory, storage, and other hardware devices) into multiple sets of computing resources so that it can run multiple operating systems and applications on one physical server. Each virtual computer that runs on the split resources is called a “virtual machine.” This technology achieves physical server consolidation resulting in the reduction of server management costs. Another advantage of this technology is virtual machine portability. Because virtual machines can be stored as a set of files, virtual machines can be copied, moved or deleted easily. This property is efficient to construct a resilient and easy-to-manage system environment.
It is known that most business enterprises already have their own IT system environment. Therefore, most business enterprises can face a need to migrate from the non-virtualized system environment to the virtualized system environment. To migrate to the virtualized environment, the operating system and application data in the current non-virtualized environment should be converted appropriately to the virtual machine format. Some software venders already provide software tools to convert data between the non-virtualized environment and the virtualized environment. Examples of data conversion software tools include VMware Converter, System Center Virtual Machine Manager by Microsoft, PlateSpin PowerConvert by Novell, and Symantec Backup Exec System Recovery. Using the data conversion software tools, the operating system and application data are easily migrated to the virtualized environment. However, most management settings such as the backup management should be redesigned and reconfigured manually.
As an existing migration technology within the non-virtualized environment, U.S. Pat. No. 7,039,662 describes the migration technology in which the volume setting information relating to a data is migrated from the first setting volume to the second setting volume in the remote storage system, so that the host may access the data in the remote system. US2008/0082777 describes the migration technology in which the data storage destination is selected based on the performance characteristics of an application. Also, remote copy technology to keep data consistency and remote copy pair migration technology are disclosed in, for example, U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,859,824 and 7,330,948. The copy technology disclosed in these publications enables backup applications to designate a certain unit/group of storage volumes to be backed up at a time to either the local system or the remote system so as to keep data consistency at a corresponding point in time. This unit/group is defined in the storage system and its backup functionality such as data copy, snapshot, and replication takes backups of volumes defined as a member of the unit/group at a time. These references are incorporated herein by reference.
When migrating a system from the non-virtualized to the virtualized environment, not only data but also backup configuration should be migrated in order to continue consistent data protection. Because in the virtual environment, multiple computers can be run on one physical server and it often invokes a reduced number and a larger capacity of storage volumes, the unit/group configuration for consistent backup can be changed. For example, migration of two physical servers using one storage volume each (two volumes in total) in a single backup group can result in one physical volume shared by two virtual servers, and vice versa, when migrating from the virtualized to the non-virtualized environment. However, any of the conversion tools or current technology for data migration does not provide the system or method to migrate data with consideration of backup configuration between the virtual environment and the non-virtual environment. As a result, system administrators are required to redesign and reconfigure the storage volumes and backup environment on migration.